One of the showcase events at the Winter Olympics will be hockey, which welcomes back NHL players to the men's competition for the first time since 2014, as the world's best women's players compete at the Games for an eighth consecutive time.

The players already know that they will be competing on ice that's smaller than the speedy, hard-hitting NHL stars are used to, but what's less certain is just how complete the rink will be by the time play begins.

Assuming that all gets settled, the competition should be remarkable, with players like Sidney Crosby and Hilary Knight vying for the title for the United States.

How it works

Each of the 12 men's and 10 women's teams have rosters of 22 skaters and three goaltenders, dressing 20 and two, and playing five vs five in regulation and three vs three in overtime. The games will be familiar to NHL and PWHL fans: 60 minutes of regulation time, divided into three periods, with no ties. If there is not a goal in overtime, shootouts — skater vs goaltender for five rounds — are used to determine the result until the gold medal game, when play will continue with sudden-death 20-minute periods until one team scores. Group play sets the matchups for elimination games.

Who to watch

The North American teams are considered the ones to beat in both the men's and women's events.

It is expected to be Knight's fifth and final Games, as she and Kendall Coyne Schofield give way to the next generation of US talent led by Laila Edwards. Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin is set to play in her sixth Olympics, and is looking for a fourth gold medal. The Canadians gave up 10 goals — for the first time in national team history — to the US in an exhibition game in December.

Finland is the defending champion on the men's side after winning its first Olympic title in 2022, when pandemic-related scheduling issues caused the NHL to pull out. Canada won in 2014 and 2010, the last two times the world's best men's players participated, with Crosby this time joining forces with Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

As with all team sports, Russia is barred from hockey at the Olympics because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. That sidelines many of the best players in the world, including NHL career goals record holder Alex Ovechkin and two-time Stanley Cup champions Andrei Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov.

Venues and dates

The men's tournament is scheduled to run from Feb 11-22. The women start Feb 5, the day before the opening ceremony, with the final on Feb 19. Games are set to be held in Milan at the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, a new, 16,000-seat venue, and a smaller rink at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena.

Memorable moments

Crosby's "golden goal" to give Canada an overtime victory in the final in 2010 in Vancouver is etched in hockey lore. So is T. J. Oshie's shootout success for the US against host Russia in Sochi in '14.

Poulin had her own OT heroics that year, as Canada tied it late after the US hit the post of an empty net — a shot that could have sealed gold. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and the US team returned the favor in 2018, beating their archrival in a shootout in the final.

Fun facts

Men's hockey has been a fixture since the first Winter Games in 1924 and actually debuted at the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp. Canada has won gold nine times (including Antwerp), the most by far. The former Soviet Union won seven times, with Sweden and the US each winning twice. The US men haven't won since the 1980 "Miracle On Ice" in Lake Placid. The women's competition was added at Nagano in 1998 and the US and Canada have met in the final six out of seven times.

Delay concerns

The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation said parts of the main hockey rink for the Milano Cortina Olympics might not be fully finished on time, but the playing surface, practice facilities and dressing rooms will be ready when the puck drops for the men's event on Feb 11.

"We can be confident on that,"IIHF president Luc Tardif said."You're not going to go to Milan for nothing."

Tardif added that the main arena will not be "exactly" what he expected in terms of capacity, with the number of seats set at 11,800.

"That's a little bit short," he said, according to The Canadian Press."But, it will be a nice setup for the Olympic Games."

Construction delays and other concerns about the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena and the secondary Rho facility have drawn headlines for weeks.

The NHL has expressed its concern about the quality of the ice surface. NHL deputy commissioner William Daly said last month in Winnipeg that the league will not send its players if there are any safety concerns with the ice.

"They're utilizing our ice experts and technicians," Daly said. "I'm cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful."

Agencies via Xinhua